Warnings: Angst, violence, language, sex

Pairings: If you need to know, please PM me and I will be happy to tell you.

Chapter Seven

Sixteen checkpoints later, Trowa sat across from Quatre in his office headquarters on an L4 colony that, despite said checkpoints, looked luxurious and untouched by the riots that plagued the rest of the colonies.

"You look terrible, you aren't sleeping," Quatre said, his voice sad and condescending. Remarkable that in the twelve years Trowa had known him he had changed so very little.

"I haven't slept well for as long as I can remember," Trowa murmured.

Quatre sighed.

"I'm sorry, Trowa. I'm sorry about Catharine and Heero. I - I wish there was something I could do to help you. I hate to see you like this."

Trowa hadn't been exaggerating - he literally could not remember having ever slept well, as far back as his memory would allow. Still it was irrational to be angry with Quatre for not understanding that. He was only trying to help, only trying to be sympathetic.

"I found Duo."

Quatre's blue eyes sharpened and his mouth snapped shut.

"Did you… did you kill him?"

Quatre had been there with him, the day Une had shown him Heero's corpse and informed Trowa that Duo had been the one to murder him. Quatre had heard Trowa's quiet oath to avenge his former comrade, his former lover.

"No," Trowa admitted. "He… escaped."

Quatre frowned.

"I - I know how much you want to bring him to justice for what he did."

"Justice? There is no justice for what he did. The riots were bad enough before Heero died - but for the last two years - how many people have died Quatre? Is his death going to be justice for that?"

Quatre sighed.

"My point exactly. Have you ever considered just… forgetting about him? Moving on?"

Trowa stared at him. He didn't understand what Quatre could possibly mean by those words.

"If you really want justice - think of all the good you can do in this world, in Heero's memory. You can -"

"I don't want justice, Quatre. I want revenge."

"That won't bring him back. It won't change anything."

Of course Quatre didn't understand, wouldn't understand.

"I'm trying to make a difference, Trowa. My company is working on projects to make the future different - to make sure this never happens again."

Trowa arched an eyebrow at that.

"You're making it possible to stop murderous psychopaths from ever happening again?"

Quatre gave him a look.

"Yes. In a manner of speaking."

Trowa sighed. Quatre was so blind, so naive - he thought a few charity hospitals and schools could change humanity.

But Quatre had reminded Trowa of the reason he went through the hassle and expense of travelling here in the first place.

"I think Duo is planning something that involves you," he told Quatre.

Quatre arched an eyebrow and leaned back in his chair.

"What makes you say that?"

Trowa sighed.

"I'm not entirely sure. But he accessed one of your remote servers."

"How?"

This was just embarrassing.

"Wufei's computer."

"Wufei - Wufei was there too?"

Trowa nodded miserably.

"And he - oh Trowa. I'm sorry."

Trowa sighed.

"I'm going to find him again, Quatre."

"I'm sure you will," Quatre placated him and then frowned. "What about Wufei's computer? Whatever Duo did to it - he might have loaded a virus onto it or -"

"We're concerned about that too. Wufei's laptop has access to secure Preventers servers and databases."

"Have him bring it here, to my technicians. We can figure out what Duo did and maybe use it to trace him."

It was odd, Trowa thought now, that that hadn't been their first instinct. Of course Quatre had the money and the staff to be able to figure out what Duo had done.

But Wufei's first instinct had been to take it to someone else.

Why?

-o-